The life after
by Genosythe
Summary: Sector V is decommissioned a long time ago, but what is this dream that keeps bothering Wally? And how can that little black haired girl in the dream possibly know who he is? You'll only find out be reading it, dudes and dudettes ;)
1. Prologue: Waking up

**Disclaimer:** Codename: Kids Next Door is not my property.

**A/N:** New story. It's not really that new. I stared it a long time ago, and I just completely forgot about it. Well, actually, I just started to write those other stories instead, which for some season gave me a much bigger kick than this one. I've made a few changes to it so it's suitable for the Internet.

**The life after**

**Prologue**

**Wally's P.O.V.**

I opened my eyes and noticed a strange kind of pain in my head. My head had never hurt that way before. It was as if something was missing from my brain. As if it had been under a high pressure.

I groaned and laid a hand on my head as I sat up. Where was I? What happened to me? Why was I here, lying on the grass in front of my house? Had I fainted? No, I couldn't remember that I had. Besides I never faint.

What time is it? I thought looking up at the blue sky.

Why couldn't I remember what had happened to me that day? Was there something wrong with me?

Then I noticed something. A little girl around the age of 10 with blue eyes and a blond ponytail was starring at me from across the street. She was dressed in a strange suit, hiding behind a garbage can. What's up with that suit? I thought. It's not Halloween yet! The girl ran off in the other direction and disappeared behind the corner of a house.

Weird... She looked at me as if she... knew me.

"Wally, dear - what are you doing down there?" a familiar voice from behind me asked.

"Mum?" I turned my head towards her.

"It's almost time for dinner, sweetheart," she said with her Australian accent, slipping her long blond hair behind her ears.

"Oh, uhm, I'll be right there," I replied with a confused tone. My Australian accent was similar to hers. I was an Australian.

Weird, why did everything seem so blurry? I knew who I was! I was Wallabee Beatles. A 13 year old boy living with my parents in America. Easy as that!

Mum turned around and headed for the house. I followed her inside.


	2. Wally's life after

**Disclaimer: **C:KND does not belong to me.

**A/N: **This is chapter 1, actually. This is kind of like where the story begins.

**The life after**

**Chapter 1**

**4 years later:**

"Wally... Wally..." A sweet voice called my name.

I ran slowly through the forest trying to find whomever it was that called my name like that. I was surrounded by gigantic trees on every side. Surrounded by a huge dark forest with fog on the ground. Surrounded by that sweet girls voice, calling my name over and over. I got closer to the voice. Where did it actually come from? I looked around.

"Wally... I'm over here, Wally." From the shadows of a big tree stepped a little Asian girl, around the age of 10, with long black hair and an oversized green sweater. She smiled at me.

I starred at her.

"Wally... I so glad you're here," she said with her sweet little girls voice.

"Who are you?" I asked with a lighter voice than I was used to. I seemed to be around 10 as well. My blond bowl-cut hair was hanging down in my eyes.

She laughed. Her laughter got slung between the trees that created a fading echo. "You know who I am, Wally."

"No, I don't!" I said confused. "And how do you know my name?"

"You're so funny, Wally!" she said and grabbed my arms. She held me tight and hugged me. I was just standing there. It was as if I couldn't do anything. As if I didn't_ want_ to do anything. I felt like I enjoyed standing there, letting this strange girl hug me. It all seemed so familiar to me, as if I knew this girl and what hugging her was all about. And I liked it! In a scary way, that is.

All the sudden something tore me out of her arms so I tripped backwards. And I saw myself falling. Falling... into a bottomless pit...

I got up with a tiny shriek. Drops of sweat were rolling down my forehead. I was safe in my bed. The covers had almost fallen on the floor of the sudden move I'd made. My breath was heaving. I ran my fingers through my blond hair. It wasn't bowl-cut anymore. It was a little shorter now. I usually put some gel in it to make it look like I'd just got out of bed.

I was calming myself down. "What's up with that dream?" I muttered. I'd had that same dream many times now. The exact same dream! And I couldn't figure it out!

"Wally, honey - time to get up for school!" Mum's voice called through my bedroom door.

I cleared my throat. "OK, Mum!" I got out of bed and walked over to my dresser. I pulled out a pair of baggy jeans and a loose fitting blue shirt and some clean underwear. Then I headed for the bathroom. I starred at myself in the mirror, starring into my green eyes, at my white boxer, at my teenage body, at my teenage six-pack. I work out a lot. Not that I'm really big and strong or anything. I'm a rather skinny looking guy. I've always been. And I'm shorter than most of my friends. I wonder why that is. My dad isn't that short. My mum is about my size, though.

I took a quick shower. Then I got dressed and went downstairs to eat some cereal for breakfast. Mum knows how much I love eating my chocolate cereal in the morning.

"Morning, Son!" Dad exclaimed over the morning paper. "Had a nice night?"

"Eh, sure, Dad," I replied and sat down by the table.

"Need a ride to school, Sport?" he asked, taking a sip of his coffee.

"No, I'll just take the bus," I said and scratched my neck.

"Sure thing, Sport!" He smiled at me, then he got back to reading his paper.

I finished my breakfast, said goodbye to my parents and left the house. It was a beautiful morning in May. The sun was shining and it was getting warmer every day. I was looking forward to summer. Things were going to be so cool. I could party every single night!

I headed for the bus stop. My best friend Luke smiled at me as I came closer and yawned. "Morning, dude!" he said. His brown hair was reflecting the sunlight. He wore about the same clothes as me. Baggy jeans and a red shirt.

"Yeah, morning," I replied.

"So how did your piano lesson go last night, Mommas boy?" he asked in a teasing tone.

"Very funny, Lukey boy!" I replied sarcastically. "You know how much I hate that crud!"

"Why don't you just not play?" he asked.

"Mum'll be so disappointed," I muttered. "I just don't want to start anything."

"I see..." Luke wrinkled his forehead.

"Listen, Luke," I begun, leaning my weight on one leg. "I had that dream again last night."

"What? That one about you and that little girl?" he asked with a suspicious look on his face.

I nodded. "I just don't get it."

He shrugged. "Who knows, maybe it's a girl you wish you knew or something." Then he looked at me with a tricky smile. "Is she hot?"

"Dude - she's like 10 years old!" I cried out irritated.

"Wow, really?" He looked with an eyebrow lowered, wrinkling his nose. "Start dreaming about girls your own age, you pervert!" Then he laughed. He always cracks himself up. I shook my head.

Then the bus came along. We found us a seat in the back. Luke started talking about this wild party that would be arranged soon. Some other kids joined the conversation. I wasn't really focusing on what they said. I couldn't think of anything but that girl. Who was she? Where did she come from? How could she know who I was?

When the bus arrived at school we all got off and headed for the school building. Luke and I found our lockers in the hall and took out our English books. "Man, English sucks!" Luke groaned.

"It's better than Spanish," I muttered. The bell rang and we went to our classroom down the hall.

It seemed like it took forever as we went through some rules on how to write a novel. I didn't pay attention at all. Not that I cared anyways. I knew how to write a cruddy novel!

The girl from my dream was constantly on my mind as we switched classes. I started to think normally again when the lunch break started. Luke and I went to the cafeteria to eat. We got ourselves some food trays and got in the lunch line. Luke and I was joking and laughing while getting our food. We found ourselves a table and sat down.

There were kids at our age everywhere, as usual. But then this girl caught my attention. There was something familiar about her... About her long black hair, about her face. I stared at her.

She was standing near by talking to this other girl with short brown hair. The girl laughed at something her friend had said. And I seemed to know that laughter.

As I starred at her she looked over at me, noticing me. My heart started to beat faster. The girl smiled at me. I knew that smile!

"Wally?" Luke's voice interrupted my thoughts. I looked over at him. "Dude - what's up with you? You look like you've seen a ghost." He lowered his eyebrows.

I looked back at the girl, but she was now gone. I lowered my eyes. "I think I just did...

Later that day I had football practice. Luke did, too. We usually do everything together. That's why we're such good friends. We're pretty much the same.

As we were out there playing, I caught the ball and started to run to do the touchdown. Then something up on the tribunes caught my eye. The girl! It was really her! She was watching me playing football. Who was she? She seemed so much like a girl I knew - or had known once.

And that's when it hit me. It was the girl from my dream! I recognized her hair, her smile, everything about her.

I didn't know what to do. I couldn't run any longer. I stopped - and got hit from behind by one of the other players. "Ooff!" I fell down on my face. I must have had hit my head. It felt like I couldn't get back up. The other player took the ball from me and ran in the opposite direction.

"Beatles - what the hell was that?" coach Mitchell yelled out from the sideline. I looked up at him and got back up on my feet.

Luke grabbed my arm. "Are you OK, Wally?"

"Huh?" I looked for the girl. She was gone again.

"Beatles!" Coach Mitchell didn't sound happy with me.

"Sorry, coach!" I replied. "My bad."

Coach Mitchell walked up to me. "What happened?"

"Uh, I-"

"Don't you realize that you're one of my best players?" he asked. "With the homecoming game coming up soon I can't afford to lose you."

"Yeah... Sorry about that, coach..."

We finished playing and headed for the locker room. When Luke and I were finished in there we started to walk home. We don't live _that_ far away from our school. We're just too lazy to walk back and forth every day.

We were talking about home works and stuff when all the sudden something hit me from behind. I turned around angrily. Two little boys looked up at me. They'd obviously been playing with a baseball, when one of them threw it at me by accident. I picked up the ball. "Cruddy kids!"

"Sorry, man," one of them said. "Can we like have our ball back now?"

"Don't you have some noses to pick, you cruddy brats?" I yelled at them.

"Hey! You don't want to mess with us!" the other one said tough. "Nobody messes with the Kids Next Door!"

I starred at them with a surprised look on my face. "What did you say?"

"Nobody messes with the Kids Next Door, pal!" the first one repeated irritated.

Kids Next Door! Where have I heard that before? I thought.

Luke grabbed the ball out of my hand. "And nobody messes with us!" he said and threw the ball far away. "Now beat it, Kids Next Dork!"

The two little boys looked at us with anger before they ran off to get their ball.

"Kids Next Door?" I repeated for myself.

"Yeah, you've never heard of them?" Luke asked.

"Uh, I don't-..." I stopped talking. "I mean yeah, but I just can't remember from where."

"Eh, they're like this organization for kids that fight adults and stuff, and they hate teenagers," Luke said.

A voice rung in my head. "Cruddy teenagers!" It sounded like my voice, only younger! I starred at Luke, my left eye twitching.

"What, man?" he asked, frowning and shrugging his shoulders.

I shook my head as if I was trying to get rid of the voice. "Nothing..."

About a week later I had that dream again. And the same day I saw the girl from the dream at school. She looked much older now than in the dream of course. She seemed to be as old as me. This time she was sitting on a bench outside by the fountain.

"Luke?" I pulled his arm. "You see that girl over there?"

"Huh?" He looked over by the fountain. We were standing near by. "The girl with the black hair?"

"Yeah, her," I muttered. "Who is she?"

"I don't know, dude," he said. "Why don't you ask _her_? She looks kinda hot!"

"Dude - she's the girl from my dream!" I said without taking my eyes off her. "Only now she's older!"

"Are you sure, Wally?" Luke asked suspicious. "Or are you just going nuts? Maybe you need a day off?"

"No!" I shouted. "I'm not nuts! I'm telling you, it's her!"

"Then go over to her," he said.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, it's time for you to do something cool with your life," he laughed. "Meet some new people before you let this dream of yours goes way out of hand."

I took a deep breath before I carefully walked over to the girl on the bench. The girl was busy reading a book. I cleared my throat. "Hey." The girl looked up at me with the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen.

"Hi!" she replied and smiled.

"Err, is this seat taken?" I asked pointing down next to her.

"Go ahead," she said and laughed. Her laughter made me smile as I sat down.

"Look - I've noticed you lately," I said carefully.

"Really?" she asked and smiled at me again. She put her book down and gave me her full attention.

"Yeah, and I got curious," I admitted, avoiding eye contact. Then I looked at her with a frown. "What's you're name?"

She grinned at me. "My name is Kuki Sanban. And you?"

"Wallabee, err, Wally Beatles." I was trying not to sound very nervous, but it was quite hard to hide it. I somehow just wanted to ask if I'd know her once or something, but I kept my mouth shut. It would have made me sound like a complete dork!

"You have a cute name, Wally."

"Ehehe, thanks," I said. Was I blushing?

"Hey - you're an Australian!" she exclaimed, surprised to notice my accent.

"Yeah," I said smiling. "I am." I didn't really want to talk about Australia now, so I was quick to change the subject. "So... how old are you?"

"I'm almost 17," she said. "And you?"

"17." I was fumbling with my hoodie.

She laughed again. "Cool!" It was her. I knew it! I recognized everything about her. It was as if I already knew her. She started to tell me about her younger sister Mushi and how much she loved her family. I told her about me family too. We talked about things we liked to do. Not that we had so much in common, but I felt a certain connection with her. Everything she said sounded so familiar and it was of course very interesting. We didn't get to talk _that _before the bell rung.

"It was really nice talking to you, Wally," Kuki said grinning.

"Likewise," I said and smiled. "I hope to see you again soon."

"Sure, you'll find me right here," she said. "This is my spot. I'm usually here if I'm not with my friends. I tend to like some time alone from time to time. But you're always welcome to interrupt me." She laughed. I laughed, too. A nervous laughter.

"See ya!" she said and headed for the stairs. I just starred at her till she disappeared into the crowd.

I felt like I could float. Or fly. Ah, hell! It didn't matter! I'd talked to her! And I knew her name. Kuki. Kuki was from Japan. Kuki was pretty! I shook my head and smiled for myself as started to run to my classroom. I was late.

The day after, I ran into Kuki by the bathrooms. She was on her way out of the girls' room. "Hi, Kuki!" I said trying to catch her attention.

She looked up - and smiled when she saw me. "Hello, Wally! How's everything?"

"Err, fine," I replied. "And you?"

"Everything's just great!" she exclaimed. I loved the way she showed such enthusiasm over the smallest things.

I smiled. "Look - I was thinking... if you're not busy to night, maybe you'd like to do... something?"

"Are you asking me out on a date, Wallabee?" she asked suspiciously, hiding her smile. I didn't know what to say. Why was I so cruddy nervous?

"Ehe, yeah - I guess I am..." I noticed how my cheeks got warm and knew that I was blushing.

"I'd love to do something with you," she said and smiled at me.

I couldn't help but smile. "Cool! So do you want me to call you later or something?"

"Sure, I'll give you my number," she answered and picked up a little note and pencil from her pocket. Then she scribbled down her phone number on it and gave it to me. "Hope to hear from you," she said and laughed. "I've got to go now, my friends are waiting for me."

"OK, bye," I said and grinned nervously. She waved her hand at me as she started to skip away. I looked down at the note in my hand. Her handwriting was perfect. She had written her name at the top with a little heart over the "i" in "Kuki". And then she had written her number below it, ending it with a cute smiley. It made me smile.

What was that strange feeling?


	3. The date

**Disclaimer: **Still ain't mine.

**A/N:**...I've got nothing. Read!

**The life after**

**Chapter 2**

I was very nervous about calling her later that day. I picked up the phone and just listened to the tune while I was trying to collect myself.

Mum entered the room. "Hi, sweetie," she said and smiled at me.

"Hi," I replied without much enthusiasm.

"Who are you calling?" she asked.

"Err, nobody!" I said quickly and slammed the phone back on.

Mum looked at me. Then she sent me a daring smile. "Are you calling a girl?"

"No way!" I exclaimed. "I'm... uh, calling Luke. We were talking about doing something with Joey and Spence later."

"Right," Mum said, but I knew she didn't believe me by the stupid grin on her face. Then she turned serious, changing the subject. "Hey, you did remember to play some piano today, right? We had a deal."

"But Mu-um!" I started, clenching my fists.

"No 'buts'!" she said. Now her face turned irritated. "You said you'd practise today!"

"I forgot!" I muttered angrily, glancing down at my shoes.

"Yeah, you forgot - on _purpose_!" She rolled her eyes and sighed, crossing her arms over her chest. "You _always_ 'forget', don't you? You always have some good explanation for not doing what I'm telling you to."

"Okay, fine! I have a date!" I yelled, not realizing how angry I actually sounded.

Mum just starred at me blankly for a second. Then she smiled exited. "Really?"

"Yeah..." I knew I was blushing. "Now stop treating me like a baby! I'm 17 years old."

"I'm sorry, Wally," she said, smiling. "It's just that you haven't had a date for a while."

"I know," I muttered. "I didn't want to date anybody."

"Fair enough," Mum said. "You can drop the piano lesson today."

"Thanks," I said. "Can you leave me alone now? I have to call... the girl." How embarrassing!

"Don't I get to know her name?" she asked with a tricky grin.

"Her name's Kuki, that's all you need to know!" I sneered. "Now leave."

Mum looked like she thought hard about the name for a second. Then she looked at me with a big smile and blinked. "Oh, Kuki." And with that she left the room.

What was that all about? It was as if she knew the name. As if she knew who Kuki was... No way! I thought. If I barely know who she is, how the Hell can my mum know who Kuki is?

I finally got to call Kuki. We agreed about meeting each other outside the movie theatre. I let her choose a movie. I can't even remember the name of it. It was so boring! But I didn't tell her. After all I didn't want to sound like an ass! Besides, I barely knew her. What if I'd upset her? At least she enjoyed it. I kept peeking at her all the time. She didn't seem to notice. Guess that was for the better.

When the movie was over we went a stroll in the park. "I'm really glad we did this, Wally," she told me, gazing at the stars above us.

"What, the stroll or the movie?" I asked.

"All of this," she replied. "It's been very fun. At first I didn't think I liked you this much, but I was wrong." She looked at me.

I smiled carefully. "Yeah, it's been fun. But I sort of liked you from before I met you face to face."

"What do you mean?" she asked, frowning.

"I've always thought that you're pretty," I admitted nervously, avoiding eye contact, while tugging one of the sleeves of my hoodie.

She laughed. "Thank you! You're cute."

"I am?" I was surprised to hear her say that.

"Yes." She grinned.

"Listen, Kuki... There's something I've been meaning to tell you," I said and stopped. I looked into her eyes. "Well, I haven't actually been for a long time, I sorta made it sound like that. But there's something I want you to know."

"What is it, Wally?"

I took a seat at the nearest bench. Kuki sat down next to me. I stared at her. She stared back, waiting for me to talk.

"I've been having a strange dream for a long time now," I began. "It's about me running around in a foggy forest. This girl is calling my name over and over. When I finally find her, she acts as if she knows me and hugs me. And all the sudden something breaks us apart. Then I see myself falling into a black hole - and then I wake up. It's been happening many times, and I'm getting worried about it. It's like a nightmare to me now!" I stopped talking and took a deep breath. "And do you know what the really weird part is?" Kuki shook her head, listening closely to every word. "That little girl that calls my name - is you." I looked at her with serious eyes. "It's you, Kuki."

She looked surprised. "I had this dream a long time before I got to know you," I told her. "In my dream we're only about 10 years old. You're wearing an oversized green sweater and black tights. My hair is bowl-cut, just the way it was when I was a kid."

"An oversized green sweater?" she asked shocked. "I always wore that when I was younger. But I can't remember it. We have a few family photos at home where I wore that sweater. It's just so weird that I can't remember it. It's as if most of my childhood memories are wiped out."

"Mine, too!" I exclaimed. "It was so weird. I remember everything clearly from that day I woke up in my back yard 4 years ago, not knowing how I got there in the first place. I can still remember it all. I saw this little girl with a blond ponytail. From that day of I can remember everything."

"You saw the girl with the blond ponytail, too?" Kuki yelled and jumped to her feet. "That happened to me, too! All of it!"

I got up, too. "This is creepy," I muttered. Then a thought hit me. I lowered my eyebrows at her and looked at her suspiciously. "You're not kidding with me, are you?"

"I wish I was," she said, lowering her eyes and folding her hands together. "I can't remember anything from before that day I woke up in my back yard. All the sudden I saw this little girl that you mentioned. She ran off before I got a closer look at her. But she was wearing this strange suit."

"Wow..." I felt like my legs were about to yield underneath me. Somebody had actually experienced the same thing I had. I _wasn't_ crazy!

"What do you think happened to us, Wally?" she asked.

"I-I don't know..."

I walked Kuki home. None of us felt like talking that much. We were both totally without a clue. It was too much for us, and now we had a lot of thinking to do.

"Thanks for everything, Wally," Kuki said when we were standing on her front porch. "Today was really great." She gave me a hug.

I knew I was blushing. "We've got to do this again sometime."

She nodded with a big smile on her face. "Good night, Wally."

"Good night, Kuki." We smiled at each other before she went inside the house.

This had been a grand day, a day I never would forget. I knew there was something between us now. I think maybe I was falling for her completely. I was singing to myself the entire walk home.

It was late. I checked the living room. It was empty. My parents had obviously gone to bed. I went upstairs to my room and lay down on my bed. All I wanted was to just lay there and think about everything that had happened that night. I realized that something had happened to Kuki and me when we were younger, but I wasn't sure of what it was. Maybe we knew each other once? I thought, biting my lip.

I thought hard about my past as I got back up and went into the bathroom. I could remember moving to America. I could remember a lot from kindergarten. I could remember my first day of school, and other certain things that had happened. I could remember our family vacations. Then one day it all stopped. I remembered nothing more. I just knew that I had grown up and had a nice childhood obviously. Then I could remember everything just clear from that day when I was 13 years old.

It's just so strange, I thought, looking at myself in the mirror. I brushed my teeth quickly and went back to my room. Then I took of most of my clothes and slipped under the covers in my bed. I was happy to lie down, to be able to shut the world out and just think. My thinking didn't get me anywhere else than into a deep sleep.

I opened my eyes. I wasn't in my room anymore. I was in a different room. And I had waked up in a wrestling ring. No, wait! I was _standing_ in a wrestling ring. The ring was up in a branch that was sticking through the wall. I looked down outside the ring. It was far down to the floor.

Who'd put a wrestling ring in a branch inside a house? I thought. There was a ladder stuck to the branch that could lead me down to the floor. The branch was also sticking through the floor.

It all looked like a house of wood. A very poor house. It looked like a kid had done the job designing it. And building it...

Over at one of the walls there was a door. I went out of it. On the other side of the door the number 4 was painted on with red paint. I was now in a hall. I went to the nearest window and looked out. I was high up in a huge tree house! How'd I get up there?

"Hi, Wally!" I heard a voice from behind me call.

"Kuki?" I turned around.

She was standing a few feet away from me. Now she was only around 10 years old.

"I've been looking for you," she said. "Numbuh One told me to go get you, we're going to have a meeting upstairs."

"What are you talking about?" I shouted. Then I noticed that I was about 10 years old, too. My voice was lighter and my hair was once again bowl-cut.

Kuki looked at me with a strange face. "Are feeling OK, Wally?"

"No!" I yelled. "What is going on here? And who the crud is Numbuh One?"

Kuki laughed. "You're funny! Numbuh One is our leader, stupid head."

"Leader of what?" I asked.

Now she turned serious. "Of Kids Next Door, Wally! Geez, what is up with you today?"

"Kids Next Door?" I repeated shocked.

I got up with a gasp. "Kids Next Door!" I whispered.

I let my head rest in the palms of my hands. "What a weird dream..." Was this some kind of clue? Was this something that could lead me to my answers?

The next day I called Kuki and told her about the dream. She sounded upset about it. Like as if she knew what I was talking about, just not completely.

Mum told me to practice my piano playing before I did anything else. "It was part of the deal," she told me. "You got to go on your date yesterday, now you practice."

As I sat down to play a voice rung in my head. "I hate cruddy pianos! Why don't they all just blow up?" And it was _my_ voice! My voice when I was younger. I could remember some hate for pianos as younger, but when did I say that?

I still didn't like playing piano, I just did it because of Mum. If I'd object she'd get pissed and we'd start a huge argument, which probably would end with her winning somehow anyway. She usually makes a good point. She always wanted me to go to a private school and stuff, but I said _no_. She also wanted me to start an acting class, but I said _no_! She always wants me to do classy things, but I never feel like it. I'm rather laid-back. I dress the way I feel like. We've been arguing about that, too, but I won that round.

Okay, so I'm pretty good at playing piano, but I'm not very proud of it. You might have noticed that some of my friends make fun of me for it.

When I was done with my piano lesson I went over to Luke's. I wanted to tell him about my date. He knew that Kuki and I went out the night earlier, but I knew he wanted details.

"Did you kiss her, dude?" he asked me, grinning. He sat down on the couch.

"No, I didn't feel like it," I admitted, lowering my eyes. "But she told me that she liked me." I sat down in an arm chair, the chair I usually sit in when I'm there.

"Cool," he replied. "But next time you slip her the tongue!"

"Don't be gross!"

"What, it's just facts!" he called out.

"Yeah, maybe I'll kiss her, but the way you put it, it sounds so disgusting!" I told him. "And I really don't want the relationship between her and me to be disgusting. Not that I'm counting on us ending up with going steady or nothing."

"What ever," he muttered. Then he changed the subject. "Hey, you want some soda?"

"Sure, why not," I replied, shrugging.

He went into the kitchen and got two cans of coke. He tossed one of them over at me when he got back and I caught it with one hand. I opened it. "Luke - did I ever tell you about the crazy dream I had about these hamsters that stole my cans of soda?"

He was taking a big sip of his coke as I said that. Now the soda ended up on the floor as Luke started laughing like a hyena. I had to laugh by the funny sight.

Luke stopped laughing eventually. Then he looked down on the floor. "You're helping me cleaning this up, Wally," he said seriously.


	4. The Reunion

**Disclaimer:**Genosythe is not the owner of Codename: Kids Next Door.

**A/N:**Better late than never! Here we go.

**The life after**

**Chapter 3**

The alarm went off. I ran towards Numbuh One's room. All the others were right behind me. I knew that something was going on. A new mission was about to start. We ran into the room.

"What's going on?" Numbuh Two called.

"Are we under attack?" I asked with my light voice.

"Team - The Delightful Children from Down the Lane has done it again," Numbuh One told us. "It is time to bring down their Really, Really Destructive Machine." He turned towards Numbuh Two. "Is the new machine ready, Numbuh Two?"

"Yes, sir!" Numbuh Two confirmed.

"Good," Numbuh One said. "Kids Next Door - to the ship!"

We all got in our transporter pipes and landed in Numbuh Two's room. The new ship was ready and standing by the opening of the airplane shaft. We all went onboard.

Numbuh Two, who's the pilot, started the ship. "Hold on to your butts," he muttered and flew us out of the tree house.

I looked out of the window and saw a bunch of teenagers crossing the street below us. They stared at us with curiosity. "Cruddy teenagers!" I muttered.

"What?" Numbuh Three turned towards me.

"I hate teenagers!" I said angrily.

She smiled at me.

"Save some hate for them darned Delightful Brats now, Numbuh Four!" Numbuh Five told me smiling.

"I always have some hate left over for them!" I exclaimed. "Just you wait! I'm gonna give them a _bang_!" I swung my fist. "And then a _pow_! And then a grr! I'm gonna give them a real woopin'!"

Numbuh Three laughed. "They're stupid!"

"Calm down, team," Numbuh One said. "I'm not sure if we're fighting with other weapons than the ones installed in the ship."

"Crud!" I said. "At least let me use a torpedo or something on them!"

All the sudden something hit our ship. "We're here!" Numbuh One shouted. "And The Delightful Brats have spotted us!" Shaded behind the glass case of one their Really, Really Destructive Machine, the Delightful Children were staring up at us with satisfied smiles on their faces.

"Bring it on!" I screamed, clenching my fists and gritting my teeth.

"Yeah!" Numbuh Five united, lowering her cap to cover her eyes.

"Bring her lower, Numbuh Two," Numbuh One ordered.

"Aye-aye, sir!" Numbuh Two replied, saluting the leader.

The Delightful Children were shooting heavily at us.

"Numbuh Five, activate cannon!" Numbuh One ordered.

"Roger that, Numbuh One," she said and went over to a control panel at the left side of the ship. "Activated!" We started firing back at The Delightful Children's machine down on the ground. The Delightful Children had been busy destroying a new skate park before we showed up.

"Don't blow up the entire skate park now," Numbuh Two said, frowning.

"It's already messed up," Numbuh Five replied irritated.

Then something hit our ship hard and made it shake pretty bad.

"What happened?" I shouted.

"They took out one of our engines!" Numbuh Two said worried. "I have to take her down."

"Do it," Numbuh One said. "We'll have to do it by hand from here. You got your wish, Numbuh Four."

"Yeah!" I exclaimed.

"Everybody grab a weapon from the back!" Numbuh One ordered. "Numbuh Two - make sure you land this thing pretty far from the Delightfuls. We don't want them destroying it."

"Roger that," Numbuh Two replied.

Numbuh One, Three, Five and me went to get some weapons. "Lock and load!" I exclaimed. Numbuh Two met up with us in the back.

Numbuh One looked at us like only a leader can. "Kids Next Door - Battle Stations!" We all ran off the ship, shouting, with our weapons to take down our enemies. We shot at their machine, but it wasn't of much help. They were shielded pretty well, behind a thick layer of glass and metal.

"We need more powerful weapons!" Numbuh One realized.

"No really, you think?" Numbuh Five replied sarcastically.

I was still not giving up. I got closer to the machine with a trash can lid as my shield. I shot at them and got in a few pretty good ones. But then they hit my shield. I got slung back by the pressure and bounced into our ship - and blacked out.

I got up with a chocked shriek. Now I was totally dripping with sweat, but I didn't give a crud. I had now woken up from another weird dream, but this time-...

"Kids Next Door!" I said out loud and grabbed my hair. "I'm one of them! I'm Numbuh Four!" It all came back to me now. I had forced it back. All of my memories were back. All of it! I remembered everything. I remembered that day I got decommissioned. What a horrible day... Then I gasped. "What about Numbuhs One, Two and Five?" I had never seen them after that day we got decommissioned. "I wonder if they're okay..." I could still remember their names. Numbuh One was Nigel Uno. Numbuh Two was Hoagie Gilligan. Numbuh Five was Abigail Lincoln. I could also remember where they'd once to lived, but I wasn't sure if they still lived there. What if Abby had gone back to France?

I had to know if they were around. I had to talk to them and know if they remembered anything about our past as a team. I glanced at the clock on my night stand. 4:15 am? I made an irritated noise. "I can't wait that long!" I cried. I got out of bed, took a long shower while I was thinking hard about everything, got dressed and went down stairs to get something to eat.

I just had another bowl of chocolate cereal. Usually I eat breakfast together with my parents on Sunday mornings, but I didn't have time to wait for them to wake up and make it now.

I checked my watch. 4:56 am. It was still very, very early. I _never_ got up this early. But today was different. I had reason to get up early. I had to check on Nigel, Hoagie and Abby. I _had_ to! I was just hoping they still lived where they'd used to live.

I went out of the house - and froze on the front porch. Why don't I just take the car? Nobody's using it today anyways. I already had my licence. I ran back into the house and got the car keys from the table in front of the big mirror in the hall. It didn't take long before I was sitting behind the wheel, starting the car. The sun wasn't even up yet as I started to drive away from the house. The sky was coloured pink and orange.

There were no cars out now. No wonder! Who the crud is up at 5 on a Sunday morning to go for a drive?

I drove carefully down the street I remembered to be where Nigel had used to live. And just as expected, Nigel's house was still there with the big tree sticking out of the roof, but the Treehouse was gone. There was nothing left of it. I let out a tiny cry. Nothing left. All gone... I couldn't believe it.

I stopped at the side of the street and got out of the car. Then I walked over to the house. I stared at the tree. My room was up there once, I thought sadly.

I walked quickly over to the mail box by the end of the drive way. "The Uno Family," I read on the side of it. I glanced over at the house. "They still live here!" I was so happy I smiled. I ran to the back of the house and looked up at the window that once belonged to Nigel's room. I wasn't sure if it still was his room, but I had to check.

I picked up a few pebbles from the sidewalk and went back under the window. With a groan I threw one of the pebbles at the window. Direct hit! I threw another one. A few seconds later someone came to the window and opened it. It was Nigel! I recognized the face and the bald head.

"Who the hell are you?" he shouted angrily and glared at me. "And what the hell do you think you're doing?" His voice had changed, it was even deeper now.

I realized that he didn't recognize me. "Nigel Uno, right?" I said to him.

"Yeah, but who are you?" he replied.

"My name is Wally Beatles," I told him. "I have something really important to talk to you about."

"Can't it wait?" he asked irritated and sighed. "I haven't got much sleep lately."

"It's really, really important!" I insisted.

"Well, what is it about?" he asked and sighed.

Should I just tell him? I thought, biting my lip anxiously. Yes, I should! I have to start somewhere, don't I? I looked up at him and narrowed my eyes. "I know why you can't remember much from your childhood, Nigel. I know what happened to you. I have your answers!"

Nigel opened his mouth in shock. He obviously knew what I was talking about. "How-... But-... How can you-..." He didn't know what to say, just kept on blabbering. Then he got quiet, thought about it for a second and turned serious. "Who have you been talking to?"

"No one, I found it out on my own," I told him. "And do you know why? It happened to me, too."

It looked as if Nigel was about to fall out of the window.

"Can I talk to you now?" I asked, slipping my hands into the pockets of my loose fitting jeans.

"Err, sure," he said confused. "I'll be right down. Go around to the front."

I did as he'd told me, and waited by the doorstep.

Nigel showed up in the doorway a few seconds later, dressed in grey boxer shorts and a white t-shirt. "Come on in," he said.

I followed him inside the house and upstairs to his bedroom. He nodded at his bed, meaning he wanted me to sit down. I sat down carefully, suddenly feeling a bit awkward. I knew this guy, but at the same time I didn't. After all I hadn't seen Nigel in 4 years. I wondered if he had changed much.

Nigel grabbed hold his office chair, that was standing by the computer, and sat down on it right in front of me. "Now," he said. "-you wanted to tell me something?"

I nodded. "I know what happened to us when we were younger."

"And who are you exactly?" he asked.

"I used to be one of your best friends when you were around the age of 10 to 12," I told him. "We were a team back then. You were the leader." Nigel looked strangely at me.

"I can tell by the look on your face that you don't believe me," I muttered and looked away. "It's going to be hard convincing you guys that I'm right."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked suspiciously.

"I'll just tell you it all as it is," I said.

"Yes, please!"

I took a deep breath - and begun: "We used to belong to an organization called the Kids Next Door. It's a global organization, meaning that kids from all over the World are involved. There are plenty of headquarters all over, but the biggest and most impressive headquarters is the Kids Next Door Moon Base. And as you probably guessed, it's built on the moon. That's where the top agents work. And it's also the place where they decommission old members of the organization. Members that become teenagers have to be decommissioned, just so they can't join any teenage groups and try to beat the Kids Next Door with the top secret information they already know about. Kids Next Door fight for kids' justice and to stop the tyrannical rule of adults. That way teenagers are a threat to them, they are minor adults."

"And how do we fit in all of this?" Nigel asked impatiently.

"I'm getting to that," I told him. "We used to be operatives, too. We were one of the most meaningful sectors there was. We had a lot of power, because you were the founder of our sector. That way you became Numbuh One, the leader of your sector, and one of the most powerful operatives. You could select your own team. You picked Numbuh Two for his invention skills, to be the one to build and design our 2x4 technology, and to be the pilot of our ships. You picked Numbuh Three as a left hand in combat, and to have another girl around the Treehouse. You picked me, Numbuh Four, as your bravest, strongest and craziest fighter, to be the first one to send in when danger was near. You picked Numbuh Five as your spy, the quiet one who could sneak behind enemy lines and steal important information.

Together we were the perfect team, with a golden future as best friends, and maybe as girlfriends and boyfriends, but when we turned 13 we got decommissioned so we couldn't remember anything about the organization or each other."

Nigel was just staring at me, listening. Then he shook his head. "You're crazy!"

"No, I'm not!" I said irritated. "I know all about you, Nigel, and I can prove it."

"Okay, but first I want to know how you suddenly know what happened to us, and I don't!" he said.

"It's hard to explain, but I think it has something to do with this weird dream I've been having," I told him. "Like I told you, we weren't supposed to remember each other. I didn't remember anything of this until this morning. I had a dream about us working as a team, something that happened to us once. Then I woke up and remembered everything. Before that I constantly had this weird dream about a little girl that was calling my name. Now I know who she is, but I didn't before today. It was Numbuh Three. I kinda had a crush on her back then..."

"Numbuh Three?" Nigel asked. "Don't they have real names?"

"Of course they do, it was just their agent name," I said. "Numbuh Two's named Hoagie Gilligan. Numbuh Three's named Kuki Sanban. Numbuh Five's named Abigail Lincoln."

"Well, prove that you know me, Wally," he said. "Or if that was your name."

"Yes. And I can prove that I know you." I took another deep breath. "You live in this house with your parents. Your dad is completely hung up in you two spending quality time together, and you're not really into that. You used to have a girlfriend, maybe you still know her. Her name is Lizzie Devine." Nigel looked surprised at me. "You know her?" I asked.

He nodded, still with the shocked expression on his face.

"When you were younger you really disliked adults and teenagers and feared to grow old one day. You loved the missions we went on, you got a certain kick out of it.

In the tree that is sticking out of your roof is where we used have our headquarters. We lived in that tree house. I just wonder what happened to it. Anyways, you don't like hair driers, and you've basically never had hair on your head."

Nigel narrowed his eyes. "Not good enough, kid. Do you have some real prove, like what's my favorite dish or ice cream?"

I thought about that for a while, but I knew that I knew the answer. "Uh... I seem to remember that it was pistachio ice cream..."

Nigel looked surprised. "That's right."

I smiled at him, but he didn't return it. My smile faded. "So... what kind of relationship do you have with Lizzie now?" I asked, firing a new subject.

"She's just bugging me, but I don't like her," he said. "I stay away from her. I get new girlfriends sometimes, and she hates them."

"That's good news to me," I laughed. "I never liked her that much. She was always on top of you, how annoying! Besides she always wanted you to herself, which was bad news for Numbuh Two and me."

Nigel was quiet for a while. I guess he had a lot to think about. "So... what if what you said _is_ true, what really did happen to me when I was 13?"

"We got shipped off to the Moon Base for decommissioning," I started. "It was horrible. And I knew that I wouldn't know you guys anymore. That's what hurt the most... And it was really sad knowing that we'd never go on a mission ever again. I was really crushed and heartbroken because I never got to tell Numbuh Three what I felt about her before it was too late. We got decommissioned one by one as we turned 13. The operatives strapped us down to the seats and decommissioned us. Erased our memories about the past years, working together as a team. You probably woke up around your house somewhere after that. That's when you started to remember again."

Nigel looked a bit surprised again. "That's right. I remember clearly from that day, but I never understood why I woke up there."

"Yep, that happened to me, too," I said.

"And then I saw a few kids near by," he muttered. "They were wearing these strange suits."

"That was some of the operatives," I told him. "Many of the operatives wear suits like that. We wore suits sometimes when we were out on missions." Glancing out the window I suddenly came to think about something. "Listen, Nigel, do you remember if there used to be a huge tree house in the top of your tree?"

He looked at me. "You know, I think I do... My dad has a photo of the house from the outside, and there's something up in the tree on that photo. It's in his photo album from when I was around the age of 9-10 or something."

"That's it!" I exclaimed.

"I'll go get the photo album," he said and got up. He went downstairs for a while.

I think I've done it, I thought happily. I got Nigel to believe me!

Nigel came back into view in the doorway, carrying a big photo album. "It should be in this one, we just have to look for it," he said, crossing the room. He tossed the photo album on the bed next to me and opened it. I bent over it to look at the photos. Flipping through the pages, we finally found some photos of the house. "Here!" Nigel ripped out one of them. "This is it. See that up in the tree there?"

"Boy, do I!" I replied breathlessly. I grabbed the photo to study it closer. In top of it I could actually see the lowest part of the Treehouse. And the lowest part of my room… I suddenly felt a strange indescribable emotion. It was as if I was filled with both happiness and sorrow at the same time. It hurt to know that our past was gone, and our Treehouse was, too. A big part of our lives was missing! But I was happy to know that I remembered. I remembered everything! And if I had to force the memory back into the heads of my former team mates, then so be it! I would set everything back to the way it once was. It wouldn't hurt anyone that we got back together just for old times sake. I wouldn't try to get back at the Kids Next Door for doing this to us. I just wanted my friends back…

My eyes suddenly felt a bit watery. I tried to hold it back, lowering my head just so Nigel wouldn't notice it. I knew he was watching me, probably to check my reaction on the photo. Suppose he still doubted me, not that I blamed him for it. My story did sound crazy, I was aware of that.

"That's the tree house, right?" he asked me, suddenly breaking the silence that had fallen between us as the photo had caught our attention. "I really wish I could believe you, Wally. It's just that… well, I can't seem to remember it. So it's hard for me to believe you on your word. Because that's pretty much the only proof you have - your word."

I glanced up at him. His blue eyes reviled how confused he actually was. He seemed sad, and at the same time irritated. I understood that all this information was pretty hard to swallow, but I just had to get him to believe me. I _had_ to! He was the leader, he was supposed to be smart and understanding. I supposed he had changed a lot after all.

I let go of the picture, lowering my eyes. "We should meet up with the others, too."

Nigel folded his arms in front of his chest. "What do you mean by that?"

"We have to talk to Hoagie and Abby, and see if they remember anything," I explained, getting up. "We have to check if they remember anything."

"What did you say their names were?" he asked, lowering one eyebrow.

"Hoagie Gilligan and Abigail Lincoln."

"Hey, that Gilligan kid is in my science class!" Nigel said, his eyes wide with curiosity.

"Really?" I lit up. "So he still lives here in town? That's great!" I got up. "Common – let's go and see if he's home!"

"What?" he shouted. "It's 05:30 in the morning! And it's Sunday!" He lowered his eyes to his body. "I'm not even dressed yet."

"Then put some clothes on and let's go!" I replied impatiently, moving towards the door.

"Right…" he muttered, raising an eyebrow at me, again with his arms crossed. "Look, why don't you just make yourself comfortable downstairs while I get myself ready. I'll be right down."

I sighed and left the room. The steps were squeaking under my shoes as I went down the stairs. I took a seat on the couch in the living room, taking a look around to see what had changed since the last time I was there. Not much had changed, but the TV was new, I could point out. Slowly tilting my head from side to side, as I tend to do sometimes when I'm really bored, a loud _crack_ was heard from my neck. "Ouch!" I muttered under my breath. It hadn't hurt, it had only sound really awful.

A few minutes later Nigel showed up, fully dressed and with his trademark black shades. "Alright, I'm done. Now what?"

"We're going to pay Hoagie a little visit," I told him, getting up.

"Uh-huh, and you somehow know where he lives?" he asked, lowering his eyebrows.

"Of course I do!" I replied. "Look, maybe you think it's hard to believe that we once were best friends, but I _know_ that it is true! And best friends know where to find each other."

"Yes, but after my understanding, this Hoagie kid is no longer your best friend," he said, lowering his shades to look at me. "You told me yourself that you haven't seen him for years."

"Yeah, I did say that, but I still feel like you're my best friends, Nigel," I told him, suddenly feeling very impatient. "Nothing will change that. nNot even decommissioning us will change that! Now, let's get going! We have to tell Abby, too. And Kuki." I walked right passed him, out to the hall. I waited for him to follow me. Hesitatingly, he followed me outside the house.

"So, which way are we walking?" he asked, looking in both directions.

"We're not walking," I replied, "-we're driving," I walked quickly over to the car. Nigel stared at me as I opened the door and got in. Then he followed me and got in on the other side.

"You drive?" he asked carefully as he strapped his belt on.

"Yeah, of course I do," I answered with a grin. I sat the car in gear and drove off down the street. "We did a lot of illegal driving when we were operatives in the Kids Next Door, so I kinda got a lot of practise." I noticed that Nigel nodded his head thoughtfully as I was concentrating on the road. A few cars were out now.

We didn't say much before we arrived at Hoagie's. Nigel was tense now. He barely knew Hoagie at all. I knew this was uncomfortable for him, but hopefully that feeling wouldn't last for long.

I parked the car and got out, then made my way up the stairs to ring the doorbell. I remembered how I barely could reach up to the doorbell when I was younger.

Nigel followed me, staying in the background. "Wally, what if they're sleeping?"

I didn't have time to reply before a woman came to the door. She looked at us. It was Hoagie's mother!

"Hello, Mrs. Gilligan," I said with a smile. "Is Hoagie up yet?"

She looked a bit confused. "No, I'm afraid he's sleeping. It's still very early. I'm not expecting him up in at least three hours."

"May we wake him up?" I asked. "It's very important."

She studied our faces. "Have I seen you two before, boys?"

"I'm Nigel," Nigel said. "This is Wally." He pointed at me. "We… err, used to play with Hoagie a lot when we were younger… I think…" That last part he muttered so low that only I could hear it.

"Oh, yes!" Mrs. Gilligan exclaimed with a smile. "I remember you two. You and those two girls, right? You were best friends. Oh, it was just adorable!"

Nigel's mouth dropped open as he suddenly faced the truth more and more.

"You boys come on in," she continued. "I don't think waking Hoagie up will be a problem. He should get up early so he can go to bed a little earlier tonight. He's always so busy with his computer and his inventions."

Inventions? That was great news! Hoagie hadn't changed much if he still liked inventing things. I smiled widely as I entered the house. Nigel followed me. We went up the stairs and over to Hoagie's old room in the hall. Nigel knocked first. I was too impatient to wait for an answer, so I just opened the door.

"Ey, Hoagie?" The windows were covered by the blinds, leaving the room in complete darkness. I turned the lights on. "You awake?"

Hoagie had slept quietly in his bed, but now he turned around to face us, his eyes half-open. "What?" His voice was sleepy, but I could still hear how it had changed.

"Hoagie! Man, I'm glad to see you!" I went over to his bed and sat down. "We have to talk to you."

"Who are you?" he asked, narrowing his eyes to see me better. Then he glanced over at Nigel. "And what are you doing here? Need some help with the science homework or something?" He got up in a seated position in his bed. I noticed how he was slimmer now than he'd used to be. Maybe he grew it off? But the rest of him still remained as the same. The same blue eyes, the same brown hair. His amber colored goggles were placed on the nightstand, but I couldn't see his pilot hat anywhere.

"No, I'm afraid it is a lot more complicated than that," Nigel replied, folding his arms behind his back.

"You don't remember me either, do you?" I asked Hoagie. "My name's Wally Beatles. I used to be one of your best friends when you were younger." He looked at me with a shocked expression on his face, eyeing me like I was nuts.

"Why don't you just tell him the whole thing, Wally?" Nigel suggested, moving closer to us. He dragged Hoagie's chair over and sat down.

"Alright." I told Hoagie everything without interruptions. Hoagie listened carefully. As always, he was very open for this kind of information, trying to find possibilities for it to be true. He seemed to believe parts of the story, showing enthusiasm for how I gave him credits for being such a good inventor and pilot.

"Amazing," Hoagie muttered, shaking his head. "So there really was a logical explanation for my amnesia. My mum was really worried about it, but I kept thinking that there had to be a reason for it."

"Well, get up!" I told him. "We still have more people to tell. The girls must know about this, too."

"But it's very early," Hoagie muttered, glancing at his watch.

"The sooner we tell the girls, the better." I looked at Nigel. "I have to get your memory back somehow." I forced my brain to think. To get their memories back, we would most likely have to go for a trip to the Moon Base. This would be no easy task, as the Moon Base was highly secured with all kinds of alarms and guards. But if I could get us up there I could reverse the decommissioning.

Nigel and I waited in the car for Hoagie to get dressed and eat something. I could tell by the loud rumbling in Nigel's stomach that he was very hungry, but he didn't seem to care. He was thinking hard about all the information his head now was filled with. I was just hoping he believed it. Hoagie did, no doubt about that.

Hoagie showed up short time after we had left the house. He held a pop tart in his hand as he jumped down the stairs. He got into the car, taking a seat in the back. "Where to?" he asked and took a big bite out of his pop tart.

"First we're picking up Kuki," I replied. "After that we'll start looking for Abby. I'm not even sure if she's still around."

"Oh…" Hoagie thought about the name for a second. "She was Numbuh Five, right?"

I nodded and started the car. "She's the sly spy." I smiled at my own joke as I started to back out of the driveway.

Kuki was very surprised to see me at her door this early in the morning. "Wally? Wow, you're up early. Good morning!" She grinned. "Want to come in?"

"No," I replied nervously, glancing down at the car where the two guys were still seated. "Kuki, I need you to come with me for a little bit. I have to talk to you about something very important."

"What is it about?" she asked.

"Remember how we talked about our pasts and that most of our memories were wiped out?"

She nodded. "Have you figured out something?"

"You can say that!" I replied with a frown. "Are you coming?"

"Okay, I'll be right back." She ran back into the house. After about a minute she was back, wearing another sweater – an oversized green sweater. "Look! I bought another one!" I smiled at her with a surprised look in my eyes. "Well, common," she said, walking over to the car. I followed her and opened the car door for her.

"Hi!" Hoagie greeted cheerfully. "I'm Hoagie."

I got into the car and started it once again.

Kuki greeted the others with a green sleeve-covered hand and a big grin on her face.

"So, she's Numbuh Three - right, Wally?" Nigel asked me.

"Yeah, that would be her," I replied with a smile.

"She seems very happy," he remarked, glancing back at the cheerful girl in the back, who was busy talking to Hoagie.

"Happy?" I raised an eyebrow. "She's more than happy, believe me!"

I drove the car down Abby's old street. Please say that she still lives here! I pleaded inside me. Please tell me she hasn't gone back to France or anything. And with that final pray, Abby's old house came into view. I slowed down and carefully parked by the sidewalk.

"Oh, are we going to visit Abigail?" Kuki asked with a smile.

"What?" I spun around in my seat to face her.

"This is where Abigail lives, am I right?" she asked, her smile fading.

I swallowed hard. "Y-yes, this is her house," I stuttered. "How did you know?"

"Oh, Abigail's a friend of Celina," Kuki explained. "Celina's one of my better friends. Abigail and she are often together, and then I get to spend some time with her, too. I just remembered this house to be where Celina dropped Abigail off once."

"Well, let's go," Nigel said, opening his door. "I just want this to be over with." He got out.

"Yeah," I replied and got out on my side. The others followed right behind. We all walked up to the house, Nigel ran the doorbell. A few seconds later a woman showed up at the door. Something was really familiar about her…

She stared at us, her eyes widened as she suddenly seemed to recognize us. "No way!" she whispered.

I remembered her clearly now. "Cree," I greeted with a quick nod. "We need to speak to Abby."

She shook her head, staring at us with a strange look on her face. Was that fear I saw in her eyes?

"Yes, we do," Hoagie said. "It's very important."

A voice was heard from inside the hall. "Are you nuts? Close the door, it's getting cold in here!" Could that be Abby's voice? Yes! Abby showed up in the doorway short time after. She had grown up to be a very beautiful young woman. Her hair was in about a thousand thin braids.

"Hi, Abby!" Kuki exclaimed with a happy grin.

"Kuki? What are you doing here?" Abby's mouth dropped open as her chestnut eyes studied the rest of us. "W-who are your friends?"

"Oh, this is Nigel, Hoagie and Wally," Kuki answered. "We obviously have to talk to you about something, but I'm not sure of what it is, only that it's about our past." Her eyes rested in mine. "What are we going to talk about anyways?"

"You wait and see," I replied. "We're not talking about it out here at least." Cree's eyes met mine. She knew what I was talking about. I could tell by the surprised look on her face. Cree never got decommissioned after she turned 13, as she used to be an operative as well. Instead she became an enemy of the Kids Next Door. Even though I now knew about the secrets of the organization, I wouldn't want revenge upon it and its operatives. I would just leave it alone as long as I got my friends back.

"Well, come on in," Abby said with a hesitating voice. She moved away from the door as we entered. "Let's go up to my room."

Cree couldn't do anything but stare at us. It obviously hadn't occurred to her that the past would return one day. Maybe she was afraid we wanted revenge?

Abby motioned for us to take a seat on her couch up in her room. "Alright, so what is this very important stuff you wanted to talk to me about?" she asked, sitting down on her bed to face all of us.

I quickly sat down. "Well, it's about your past, Abby," I started. I glanced over at Kuki, who was seated right next to me. "This involves you as well, Kuki." I took a deep breath – and started. I told them everything. They kept interrupting. Kuki seemed to believe everything I said, but Abby doubted me a little bit. Hoagie helped me explaining this time. He had figured out some facts on his own, and used his own words to inform the girls about our forgotten past.

"Do you have any real proof, then?" Abby asked, lowering her eyebrows at me.

"Well, only this photo of the lower part of the Treehouse, but I forgot to bring it," I replied, lowering my eyes. "We used to have many photos of us, but I think all of them were ruined as our memories were wiped out. If I only had one of those I could really prove that I'm telling you the truth. "We were an awesome team, I just wish I could prove it somehow."

Abby got up and kneeled on the floor. She reached under her bed and pulled out an old shoe box. "You see, I found something rather interesting under my bed after that day I suddenly could remember again," she said with a smile. She opened the lid.

I ran over to her, nearly tripping over my own feet. "What is it?"

"Look." She handed me a pile of photos. "I've always been curious of who it was in all of those photos. I couldn't remember having any friends that looked like that. But now I get it"

I gasped as I recognized our faces on the photos. "I-it's us..!" My voice was trembling. I flipped through the pile, suddenly feeling this big lump in my throat.

The others showed up behind me, glancing over my shoulder. "Oh, my God!" Hoagie exclaimed. "It's us! And I looked fat back then!"

Kuki giggled. "Wow! This is amazing! And I can't remember any of it. What a shame!"

Nigel was quiet. I looked behind me and noticed that he had turned away from us with a hand placed on his head.

"You okay, Nigel?" I asked.

"No!" he shouted, not moving. "I-it's too much! How can it be true if I can't even remember it happening? It's too much for me…"

Abby got up and walked over to him. "Hey, this is hard for all of us," she told him. "But think about Wally. How do you think _he_ must feel? Being the only one who remembers, he must be really frustrated. Not that I'm not frustrated enough for my own good, though. I just think that we should work together now. Those old photos I've got really made it clear to us that Wally was right." She grabbed his arm to get him to look at her. "You were the leader, like Wally said. Be a leader to us now. We really need it."

"I don't know what to do," Nigel muttered. "I can't tell us what to do to remember when _I_ can't even remember being the leader."

"I think I know what we have to do," I said standing up. "We have to go to the Moon Base. But we're going to need a little help."


	5. Friends and enemies

**Disclaimer:**Not mine. The cartoon, I mean.

**A/N:**Thanks to all reviewers! You guys are the best!

…

**The life after**

**Chapter 4**

I knocked on the door softly, patiently waiting for an answer.

"Who is it?" Cree's voice asked from inside the room.

"Err, it's Wally," I replied hesitatingly, knowing that she probably wouldn't want to talk to me or even communicate with me. "Can I talk to you, Cree? Please? We need you to help us a little."

No answer.

I scratched the back of my head as I waited for something to happen. Anything! I leaned the weight of my body onto the left leg.

Suddenly the door opened. Cree looked out at me, her chestnut eyes filled with curiosity. "What do you want, Wally? I don't think there's anything I can do to help you." I motioned for her to let me inside. She opened the door enough for me to walk into her room, then shutting it behind me.

"I need you help us get to the Moon Base," I told her as I turned around to look her in the eyes.

"No!" she shouted quickly. "I'm not taking you up there! I don't work for Father anymore. I quit, and now the Kids Next Door is completely out of my life. I don't need to go back up there, granting it to interfere on my life again!"

"You're the only one I can think of that remembers anything from the Kids Next Door!" I'm completely helpless without you. I can't remember any 2x4 technology what so ever because it wasn't my thing, I don't know any codes or anything to the Moon Base and I really suck at hacking, so that leaves out hacking onto the mainframe. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

"Yes, but I don't think I'm the right person to talk to about this," she said and stared at me.

"Then, who?" I asked, getting rather impatient with her.

"Chad." She said it in such a low voice I wasn't sure I'd heard right. Her eyes were lowered to the carpet-covered floor, narrowed and filled with mixed emotions.

"Chad?" I repeated, raising an eyebrow at her. "But he's a douche!"

"Yeah, and so am I!" she snapped. But she quickly calmed down. "Or at least I used to be." She shook her head as if she was trying to shake off her past as an evil KND villain. "Look, if you want help, you contact Chad. He'll help you."

"Are you sure?" I asked, realizing my voice sounded a bit more doubting than expected.

"He still holds a grudge against the Kids Next Door," she explained. "Which sounds very childish, I know. After all, he's 20 years old now. But it's not like he hacks them and does everything in his power to seal the organization's doom. He leaves them alone most of the time. He doesn't work for Father anymore either. So if anyone can help you, he can."

"Oh, okay," I muttered, thinking hard about what she'd just said. "So, where do I find Chad now? Does he still live with his parents?"

"You'll probably find him in his precious apartment down town," she replied with a bitter sneer, avoiding eye contact.

"Are you upset with him or something?" I asked. "I know it's none of my business, but you kinda got me curious now."

She rolled her eyes and looked at me. "Chad and I lived together in that apartment for about two weeks ago. He was my boyfriend, and he had been for a long time. Everything was going great. Then we got into an argument. I couldn't stand staying there so I moved back home, because I didn't know where else to go."

"Wow, that sucks," I muttered, suddenly feeling stupid for saying that. But I really didn't know what else to say.

An awkward silence followed. I decided to break it. "Can you take me to the apartment so I can talk to Chad?"

Cree lowered her eyes to the floor. "Yeah, but I'm not talking to him." She led the way out of the room. My four friends were standing in the hall, glaring at us as we came out to them.

"Hey, guys," I said. "I'm, uh… going to be gone for a few minutes, but I'll be back as soon as possible, hopefully with the help we need."

Hoagie and Abby nodded. Nigel crossed his arms over his chest.

"Okay, see you later, Wally!" Kuki said and sent me a heartwarming smile. I returned the smile before I made my way down the stairs behind Cree.

"Your car or my car?" I asked as we got out of the house.

"You drive?" she asked surprised.

"It's not really that weird," I muttered and sent her a dry look. "I'm 17."

She nodded. "Well, since I'm the one guiding you, why don't we just take my car?" she replied, starting to walk over to the side of her truck that was parked next to her dad's car in the drive.

I shrugged and followed her, getting in on the other side of it. "Has Chad changed?" I asked as I shut the door.

Cree turned the key and started the truck. "He might have changed in your eyes, but he's still just Chad to me. Except that he's an egotistic bastard for the moment!" She started to drive away from the house. We didn't exchange many words during the trip, something I found rather awkward. I don't like it when silence falls between me and other people like that.

I watched the road, keeping track of where we were going. We finally reached the down town area. Big buildings flew passed my window. And all the sudden Cree pulled up by one of them, parking the car. She got out, and I did the same. She still had the keys to her apartment on her keychain, now turning the key in the door to get into the building. We entered and took the stairs three floors up. With another key, she opened the door to her apartment, sighing as she swung the door open. A messy living room came into view. The curtains were shut, leaving the sun out.

"He's lousy at keeping things clean," she moaned irritated as she tip-toped over a pile of dirty clothes on the floor.

I shrugged. "It doesn't look much different from my room." I went inside and checked the room. It was a combined kitchen and living room. The kitchen counter itself was any housewife's worst nightmare. I let my eyes slide across it, across all the dirty kitchenware.

Cree suddenly disappeared into another room, which I assumed to be the bedroom. Suddenly I could hear her talking to someone. I quickly realized that it was Chad. He sounded tired and irritated. Cree raised her voice. "Oh, don't you tell me to get the hell outta here, this is my place, too!"

"I mean it, Cree!" Chad's voice warned. I could hear how it now sounded older than the last time I'd talked to him, back when he was a KND villain. "We're done talking about this!" He lowered his voice as he said something else that I couldn't quite catch. I heard a few words of their argument, but I thought it was better I didn't pay attention to it. It was, after all, none of my business.

After just standing there, awkwardly, checking every inch of the apartment, Chad finally came out of the bedroom, wearing only a pair of boxers. Cree followed right behind. He stared at me, his mouth dropping open in shock as he recognized my face.

"Morning, Chad," I greeted with a tiny smile and a quick wave of the hand.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Chad yelled and spun around to face Cree. "Are you nuts?" He pointed an accusing finger at her. "I want you to leave right now!"

"Err, I need to talk to you," I said, trying to catch his attention.

"No, you don't, you little brat!" he snarled and walked over to me, clenching his fists as if he got ready to fight. "You're not supposed to remember me! You were decommissioned."

"Yeah, I was," I replied. "But I somehow managed to force my memories back, and now I remember everything as if it never had been missing from my memory at all."

"That's impossible!" he snapped, narrowing his eyes. "You can't _force_ your memory back, you have to be re-commissioned, and just for your information, you never were."

"I've thought about that, too," I replied. "I just haven't figured it out yet. But something must have gone wrong during the decommissioning process. I just don't know what and how. I know that I tried to escape on my 13thed birthday." I lowered my eyes, seeing images from that awful day in my mind. "I guess I was afraid of forgetting about the organization."

Chad exhaled loudly and scratched his long blond hair. His eyes exposed sorrowful thoughts about a forgotten past as a KND operative. "Alright, so what do you want to talk to me about?" he asked.

The three of us sat down on the couch, and I told Chad the whole thing about me getting my memory back and now wanting my friends to get it back as well.

"I-I don't understand," Chad suddenly interrupted. "Why is this all so important to you? Why do you want them to remember? I mean, it's of no use to you."

"Yes, it is," I muttered irritated. "I'm doing this because I feel alone. I feel like I'm the only one who remembers anything at all. But I'm also doing this because I think it's wrong to erase the memories of kids, leaving them no real childhood memories at all. See, I didn't even know if I had a nice childhood before I go my memory back, I just assumed I'd had."

"Right," Chad muttered. "So you want me to go with you up to the Moon Base and re-commission your little buddies, am I right? You need me to hack into the mainframe and change some passwords and stuff."

"Yeah, that's exactly what I need you to do," I said, happy about him understanding my way of thinking.

"And… what do _I_ get out of all of this?" he asked with a strange look on his face. It was as if his eyes said that he wouldn't help me unless I gave him something he wanted in return.

"Well, what do you want?" I asked.

"I figured I'd get paid or something," he answered. "I'm kinda low on cash."

I swallowed hard. "I-I'm not sure if I've got a lot of money to give you. But I'll check with the others. Can I pay you after we've re-commissioned the others?"

He stared at me with two irritated blue eyes. "If you for some screwed-up reason won't pay me, I'll make sure you'll be begging for your life, Wallabee." The words came out really threatening, and he clenched one of his fists to show that he was serious.

"I promise you, you will get your money," I said, "-but I think it'll be easier to get money out of my old team mates after they've been re-commissioned. They don't even know you now, or who you used to be. When they get their memory back they'll be very grateful to you."

Chad nodded thoughtfully. "I guess you're right." Then he looked at me with a wicked smile on his face. "When do we leave?"

…

Chad got dressed before he sat down by his computer to start hacking into the KND mainframe. Meanwhile, Cree and I went back to Abby's so that I could tell everyone about the great news. I was thrilled about having Chad on my side.

"All we need now is a ship to get to the Moon Base," I said thoughtfully. I turned to face Hoagie. "Do you make ships, Hoagie?"

"Well, kinda," he said, raising an eyebrow at me. "I have three ships hidden in an old garage up by the forest. It's very weird, because I can't remember making them. But they are mine, and I've obviously built them once."

"Right, you hid them in the forest before you got decommissioned as you turned 13 years old," I explained, piecing the puzzle together. "You didn't want the decommissioning team take away your ships. It's pretty obvious.

The others just stared at me. Their expressions told me that they didn't understand crud, and they were probably thinking that I was completely nuts. I suddenly remembered how we reacted when we, by accident, got decommissioned when we were 10. It was all because of Chad, he was the one who was supposed to be decommissioned because he'd just turned 13. Numbuh 1 tried to explain everything to us with only a minute on his hands, being the only one who wasn't decommissioned. We thought he was absolutely crazy! Hoagie even asked if he had escaped from the mental house.

"Can we use one of your ships?" I asked Hoagie.

"I guess so," he replied, looking rather confused.

I suddenly came to think about something. I had totally forgotten that we probably would need something to defend us with up at the Moon Base. "Crud! We don't have any weapons! How could I forget about that?"

I suddenly noticed a wicked grin on Hoagie's face. "Weapons, you say?" Now, that's something I _do_ have!"

"You do?" I exclaimed. "Wow, awesome!"

We decided to go take a look at Hoagie's weapons and ships, while Chad was still busy hacking back at his apartment. He said he'd call us when he was done.

"I keep most of my inventions in here," Hoagie said as he led the way towards the garage next to his house.

"Hey, Wally!" A familiar voice called my name from across the street. I turned around, seeing Luke crossing the street quickly. "What are you doing here? Your parents are worried about you, and your dad needs the car."

"He'll have to wait, I'm very busy," I replied.

Luke stared at my four friends over by the garage. "Who are those three others with Kuki over there?" he asked suspiciously.

"Oh, they're my friends, or they used to be, sorta…" I shook my head. "Look, this is way too complicated. I'll tell you about everything later, but I really don't have time right now. It has something to do with my past and those dreams I've been having."

Luke lowered his eyebrows at me. "You… remember your past?"

"Yeah, it all came back to me this morning, it was crazy!" I replied.

Luke sighed irritated and closed his eyes as if he was thinking hard about what to say. "You were not supposed to remember, Wally." He opened his eyes and stared at me with two ice cold gray eyes, watching as my excited expression changed into confusion. "I was here to make sure you never remembered anything!"

"W-what?" I choked out and stepped back. "What are you talking about, Luke?"

"I am hired by the Kids Next Door to keep you from remembering," he explained. "I've been trying my best to keep you from getting you memory back, but those stupid kids messed it up that day they threw that ball at you. I was afraid you'd start remembering as soon as you saw them, but you didn't. They didn't recognize you right away, because if they did they wouldn't have mentioned the Kids Next Door at all. You see, something went wrong that day you got decommissioned. Nobody knows how it happened, but your mind wasn't completely erased. So they made me keep an eye on you by becoming your best friend."

I was just staring at him, not really believing what I was hearing. My chin had practically fallen to the stony ground underneath me. I felt shocked and really hurt. "S-so you were just pretending?" I stuttered. "This whole time, you were just undercover?"

He nodded once. "So it's my job to take you up to the Moon Base to be decommissioned again, and this time nothing can or will go wrong."

"No, you're not!" I shouted. "You're not taking me anywhere, because I'm going up to the Moon Base myself, but not to be decommissioned. I'm going to re-commission my friends." I pointed at them.

"You've already told them?" he asked surprised. "Alright, then we'll have to decommission them again as well."

"Now is a good time to bring out those weapons!" I yelled at Hoagie, who was just standing by the open garage, staring at Luke and me. He quickly reacted and grabbed some weapons from a shelf on the wall inside the garage. He came back and handed the three others each their own weapon.

"Are you really sure you want to do this the hard way, Wally?" Luke asked me. He pulled out a weapon of his own and pointed it at me.

"Hey, don't even think about hurting him!" Kuki shouted at Luke. She quickly walked over to us and handed me a weapon, as she was aiming hers at him.

"Listen, Kuki," Luke started. "Wally here is completely nuts. He probably told you something about a forgotten past and everything. Truth is, Wally is actually mentally ill and needs to be taken back to the mental house."

"Very funny!" she sneered sarcastically. "Like I'd fall for that! I know that Wally is right, he told us everything."

"Damn it!" Luke muttered. "And Numbuh 877 told me you were completely stupid and easy to trick."

"Well, she's not!" I confirmed. "So I suggest you get going. We're very busy."

"Are you trying to be funny, Wally?" Luke asked with a threatening voice, his eyes wide with fury.

"Not at all," I replied, backing away from him. I grabbed Kuki's hand to get her to follow me. I turned my head to Hoagie, Abby and Nigel, motioning for them to get into the car. Kuki and I made are way over to the car, still pointing our guns at him. The others got in.

"Don't even _think_ about running away from me!" Luke shouted. "It'll be a whole lot worse for you.

Kuki quickly got into the car. I kept aiming my gun at Luke and opened my door.

"One step and you'll get it!" I warned him.

"Hah! Like you'd ever shoot you best friend!" he said mockingly.

I ignored him and got into the car. I started it and backed out of the drive.

Nigel and Hoagie had opened the window in the back, and now they were aiming at Luke out of the open window.

We drove off, leaving Luke behind. I sighed in relief. "Alright, where are we going, Hoagie? Where are your ships?"

…

A few minutes later we were standing in front of a big shack of some kind. Hoagie unlocked this big padlock on a chain that kept intruders out of his precious garage. Then he opened up the door and walked inside. He quickly glanced around inside the big room before he turned on the light in the ceiling. "C'mon, guys," he said and led the way inside.

It smelled like a real garage in there. In front of me I could see three big ships covered by tarpaulins. Wow, this brings back memories, I thought to myself and smiled.

"Which one will do, Wally?" Hoagie asked and pulled in a rope that was hanging from the ceiling in a hook in front of one of the covered ships. The tarpaulin was pulled back, revealing one of the ships we once used when we went on missions.

"T-the M.O.S.Q.U.I.T.O.," I whispered shocked and stared at the big ship, my eyes wide with enthusiasm. I grinned at Hoagie. "Wow, cool! You still have it!"

"Yeah," he replied, letting out a short giggle. "I didn't even know that you had seen my inventions before…"

"Of course I have, you weirdo!" I exclaimed with a happy voice. "I've seen pretty much everything you made back when we were in the Kids Next Door!"

Hoagie looked at Nigel. Nigel just shrugged back before turning his face towards me again. The former pilot walked over to one of the two other ships and pulled the rope in front of it. The tarpaulin slid off this ship as well, a ship that I was very happy about seeing.

"The S.K.Y.C.L.A.W.!" I ran over to check it out. It was just as I had remembered. "Wow, this is so cool!"

"Yeah, but this is my favorite," Hoagie said, interrupting my moment with the ship. He went over to the last ship and pulled off the tarpaulin by the rope in front of it. To my wonderful surprise, it revealed the ship the team had pretty much been depending on. The "Cool" Bus.

"No way!" I shouted and ran over to examine the newly revealed ship. "This was our best ship. We always used this one!" I turned to face the others. "We're totally taking this one.

The others had just been standing in the background, watching me as I freaked out over the ships. Nigel had crossed his arms over his chest, glaring at me over his shades. Abby had placed her hands on her hips, frowning at me. Kuki had folded her green sleeve-covered hands, and now she grinned at me. Okay, so they thought my head was screwed up, but I really didn't care. I had made up my mind, we were taking this ship. It used to be Nigel's favorite ship as well once. Now he just looked at it like he wasn't sure if it would stay intact for a trip out in space.

I turned to face Hoagie. "Let's go, dude!"

"Alright," he replied with a grin. He drove the ship out of the garage and parked it on the grass outside. Then he climbed back out and walked over to us, that now were standing by the opening of the garage.

"Alright, so we've got the ship and the weapons," I said. "All we need now is Chad, then we'll be off. We gotta hurry back to your place, Abby, just incase he'll call. So Hoagie, you take the ship. The rest of us are driving back."

"Aw, but I really wanted to ride in that ship," Kuki muttered disappointed.

"You'll ride in it later," I told her and smiled.

"So, what about my sister?" Abby asked. "Is she coming with us?"

"I'm not sure yet, but it didn't sound like it," I replied. "Let's get going, guys! See you later, Hoagie."

He saluted me and went onboard the ship. The rest of us got into the car. I glanced at the fuel gauge, worried the car was about to run out of gas. Not yet, but soon, it could tell me. I tried to drive as carefully as possible, trying not to use more gas than I needed.

Back at Abby's house, Chad was waiting for us. Hoagie was too, since the ship was a lot faster than the car.

"Let's go!" Chad called to us, standing by the ship. "We've gotta go now, before anyone discovers that I've been tamping with the system."

"I'm going with you!" Cree called from the house. "I changed my mind."

"The more, the merrier," I told her and smiled. We all walked up to the ship that was parked on Abby's lawn. "Let's go then!"

"You're not going anywhere for the moment, Wally!" Luke's voice called out from behind me.

I turned around and aimed at him, not really surprised that he had showed up. "Yes, I am! Just try 'n stop me!"

"I'd be delighted," he snarled and aimed at me. He fired a shot, but missed. I was surprised to see that he was serious about shooting me.

"Wally!" Kuki shouted with a scared voice.

Luke walked closer to me. To my surprise I just couldn't shoot him. He walked close enough to hit me. He swung a clenched fist into my cheek. Before I even got the chance to do anything he grabbed me and threw me down on the ground. "I'm just stalling you!" he said, kneeling over me. "The decommissioning team will be here any minute. But while we're waiting, why don't I just pound you a little before you come back so I can continue my job as being you _friend_."

"Fuck you!" I shouted angrily and dropped my gun so that I could punch him in the face. We started wrestling on the ground, hitting each other 'till we started to bleed. The others were just standing there and staring at us, not really knowing what to do.

Luke and I were so busy beating each other up that we didn't notice the ship that landed on the other side of the street.

"Former Numbuh 4!" a voice called. I reacted quickly as I recognized my codename. I pushed Luke away and stared at five little kids dressed in Moon Base suits. They were aiming at me with their mustard guns. "You're going up to the Moon Base for immediate decommissioning!" I hadn't seen them before. I knew that the old decommissioning team was decommissioned itself a long time ago. How ironic.

"No way!" I shouted at them and got up on my feet. I picked up my weapon and aimed at them. I didn't notice that Luke got up too. He hit me hard on my back, which caused me to fall to my knees with a groan of pain.

Two of the kids from the decommissioning team came over to help Luke carrying me onto their ship, while the three others stood in the background with their weapons aimed at my friends.

"Don't touch him, you brats!" Hoagie shouted and aimed at them.

"Lower your weapons!" Luke ordered my friends. "Or else say good-bye to your precious buddy." He placed his gun to my head. "And this thing is set to more than just _ouch_!"

"You can't do this!" Nigel protested and took a step closer.

"Don't move!" Luke screamed. "I swear to God, I will shoot him!" Nigel frowned and stepped back.

"Let's get him on the ship," one of the kids said.

"But what if he'll fight back?" the other one asked.

Luke gave me a hard hit on the head, causing me to see stars. "Now he won't." The three of them started to carry me towards the ship.

I tried to gather enough strength to get away from them, but my body refused to move. I understood that there was no hope left. They were going to take me up to the Moon Base and decommission me once and for all. And there was nothing I could do to stop them.


	6. Decommissioning

**Disclaimer:** Even if it's been over a month, I still don't own this stuff.

**A/N:** It's been forever, but at least I'm updating now! I realize I have a million spelling and grammatical errors all over this story, but bear with me, please.

Thanks to all the reviewers!

This chapter is short, and in about two minutes, you'll know why.

…

**The life after**

**Chapter 5**

I was locked into a glass bulb sort of thing in the back of the ship that was going to take me to the Moon Base. I could barely move in there. I can't stand being locked into small spaces like this one. I freak out and get a little claustrophobic. Fear grew inside of me. The fear of losing all that I had been working so hard in my subconsciousness to achieve. I always knew about the Kids Next Door, even after being decommissioned, or else I wouldn't have been able to force it all back. And now I was going to lose it all. I wasn't going to remember Nigel, Abby or Hoagie. But most of all, I wouldn't remember Kuki – the love of my life, obviously. I thought about all the things we did together back when we were a team. I had a major crush on her, and I still had. I really didn't want to lose all of that now.

I had to force myself not to cry. It was hard not to, though. All the memories, all I knew and lived for would be gone in a matter of hours, or minutes even. It ached somewhere inside of me, my stomach twisting and my heart sinking.

I leaned my head back and listened to the sound of the engine as we made our way up to the moon. It felt like it took forever. Finally we reached the space docks up at the Moon Base. The decommissioning team got me out of the glass bulb and cuffed my hands.

"No funny stuff, Wallabee," the leader for the decommissioning team, codename Numbuh 93, told me. "We've only grown in number since you were a part of this organization. There's no way you can escape us. If you try to get away, someone will catch you sooner or later."

"We'll see about that," I muttered, narrowing my eyes at him. "You really can't do this to me. Just think of all the things I did for this organization."

"That was long before we came along, so we don't really care," one of the others replied. "Now, move it!" He grabbed a hold of my shirt and pulled me out of the ship. Operatives moved out of the way as they saw me being lead towards decommissioning room 1. I heard some of them say something to each other, pointing at me as if they recognized me. I couldn't seem to recognize them, though. They were way too young. They became operatives a long time after me.

Numbuh 93 strapped me to one of the seats in the decommissioning room. Things hadn't really changed in there. Some technology had been switched out, but that was pretty much it.

Suddenly, the door into the room was opened and a girl entered the room. She looked at me with two serious brown eyes as she came walking towards us.

Numbuh 93 glanced over his shoulder, then he looked back at me. "Oh, good," he said. "Numbuh 877 is here to chat with you." He saluted her and walked off.

Numbuh 877 stopped in front of me and stared at my face. "Numbuh 4," she greeted with a sweet little girl's voice. "How are you?"

"What do you think?" I replied with a sneer. "I feel like crud! You guys are taking away the only thing I know that I have left to live for."

"In a few minutes you won't even know that," she replied. She sighed. "I'm really sorry things had to turn out this way. It hurts me to see you like this. I know you were a grand operative back in your days. I've read all about former Sector V, and especially about you. Since your brain wasn't completely erased, we had to keep an eye on you."

"Yes, I know that," I growled. "So why didn't you just decommission me again right away so you wouldn't have to do this now when it hurts me the most?"

"We did!" she answered. "Well, the decommissioning team back then did. They tried to get rid of your memory, but the data told us something was wrong. It was impossible to get rid of the rest. So we figured that if you one day got your memory back, it would be easier to decommission you again. Everything would be removed then. We can't fail this time. We have improved."

"Why is it so bad if I get my memory back?" I muttered. "I won't hurt anybody. I just want my life back, and I want my friends to remember, too."

"The rules, Numbuh 4!" she exclaimed. "You know the rules. You can't know about the organization because we're afraid that you could go 'teen' on us and become one of our worst enemies. Remember what happened with Cree and Chad!"

"They've changed!" I replied. "They're not evil anymore. Besides, I'd never betray the organization – not now, not ever. I'm on your side."

"How can we know that for a fact?" she asked. "We don't know that, so we can't take chances. Anybody could turn evil! We're not willing to take a wrong step here only because we _want_ to believe a former operative on his word! Do you see my point here?"

"Yes, but I still think it's wrong!" I cried. "I just want to live a normal life, knowing that I had the best childhood a guy could have! And I want the others to remember, too. We'd never turn our backs on you. We'd rather help you! Think about it! Having teens working with you against other teens. You'd be unstoppable!"

"There's a reason why it's called the _Kids_ Next Door, Numbuh 4," she said. "We don't trust teenagers, adults, or old people! We only trust ourselves. We hardly trust 12-year-olds anymore either, because so many of them have become evil and joined the teens earlier." She looked over at the decommissioning team that was standing over by the control table, and gave them a sign. Then she looked back at me. "It's been a pleasure to meet someone like you, Wallabee Beatles. You and your sector really did something for this organization. I respect that. I'm sorry we have to do this to you, but that's just the way it is." She then turned around and walked over to the decommissioning team. She said something to them, and then she left the room.

Numbuh 93 looked at me with two evil eyes. "Say your prayers, _teenager_!" He lowered his hand to a button on the control table.

I tried to get out of the seat, but it was impossible. I was frightened, so scared of what I was about to lose. I squeezed my eyes shut. Every sound around me seemed to become louder. A high frequency whistling sound made my head hurt. A ship was heard from outside the base. It sounded like it flew right by inside the room! I swear I could hear the blood pump in my veins, my heart beating faster. I clenched my hands around the sides of the seat I was sitting in, just waiting for the moment it would all be over. The moment I no longer was Numbuh 4. The moment that would change my life forever – again.

I realized I was sobbing. I opened my eyes and let a few tears run down my cheeks.

Numbuh 93 glanced over at me and frowned. "This is it, Wallabee. Your time has come."

"No…" The word I had expected to be uttered in a loud cry only came out as I tiny whisper.

Everything seemed to be in slow motion. Numbuh 93's hand was now nearly touching the big button.

So long, guys, I thought. Goodbye, Kuki. So much for our future together…

I heard the click, and a large object shot out from a device in the ceiling and covered my face. It was as if I could feel how my brain was being drained. All of my memories of the Kids Next Door and my dear friends were being sucked out.

And that was it. I remembered no more…


End file.
